U.K. Plans Rapid Justice for ‘Olympics Offenders,’ Times Reports

U.K. authorities plan “fast-track justice” for people who commit crimes in connection with this summer’s Olympic Games, the London-based Times reported, citing Alison Saunders, London’s Chief Crown Prosecutor.

“Olympics offenses,” defined as those committed during the Games and at Games locations, and involving spectators, competitors or officials, will result in court appearances within 24 hours; courts across London will sit in the evenings and early mornings, the newspaper said.

Virtual “live-link” courts will be used extensivly, to avoid unnecessary movement of prisoners across the capital at a time of traffic congestion, the Times said.

The plans have been drawn up by the Crown Prosecution Service, the police, the Courts Service and other criminal justice agencies, the newspaper said.

Crimes to be dealt with under the fast-track system include ticket touting, street disorder, pick-pocketing and mugging, according to the Times.

Court rules on children’s sentences

The Supreme Court on Monday threw out mandatory life in prison without parole for juveniles. The ruling continued its trend of holding that children cannot be automatically punished the same way as criminal adults without considering their ages and other factors. The 5-4 decision split along ideological lines: The court’s four liberals and swing vote Justice Anthony Kennedy joined to order states and the federal government to allow judges and juries to consider a juvenile’s age when they hand down sentences for some of the harshest crimes, instead of making life in prison without parole automatic.

By making youth “irrelevant to imposition of that harshest prison sentence, such a scheme poses too great a risk of disproportionate punishment,” wrote Justice Elena Kagan, who was joined in the majority opinion by Kennedy and Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor. Monday’s decision left open the possibility that individual judges could sentence juveniles to life without parole in individual cases of murder, but said state and federal laws cannot automatically impose such a sentence.

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‘Justice served,’ but investigation continues

Jerry Sandusky's conviction Friday night on 45 counts of child sexual abuse may be just a beginning rather than an end to one of the most dramatic criminal episodes in Pennsylvania history. Sandusky must be sentenced and his attorneys, Joe Amendola and Karl Rominger, promise there will be appeals to his conviction and sentence. Two Penn State officials arrested in connection with the case, former athletic director Timothy Curley and retired Penn State finance director Gary Schultz, will be going to trial this fall. They have been charged with failure to report child abuse and lying to a grand jury.

The charges stem from an alleged report to them by former Penn State assistant coach Mike McQueary, who testified he witnessed Sandusky committing a serious sexual act against a boy he estimated to be only 10 to 12 years old. And, according to Blair County attorney Robert Donaldson, it is likely even more Sandusky victims will come forward. Donaldson has been acting as a legal analyst for the Mirror during the Sandusky trial. Attorney General Linda Kelly, speaking to a sometimes restive crowd numbering hundreds of local residents outside the Centre County Courthouse late Friday night, said the investigation into the Sandusky affair is "ongoing."


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Sleep Violence: A Real Danger, Little Understood

Last month, psychiatrists at Stanford University announced that sleepwalking is on the rise. More than 8.4 million adult Americans—3.6 percent of the population over 18—are prone to sleepwalking. That’s up from a 2 percent prevalence the same authors found a decade ago. And as the latest issue of Scientific American Mind notes, a subset of these nighttime wanderers may be at risk for a disturbing and dangerous phenomenon: sleep violence. Aggressive somnambulance in the general population hovers at or below 2 percent in surveys conducted in North America and Europe. But not all sleepwalkers exhibit violent behavior and what causes the violence remains a puzzle to researchers.

In fact, three separate disorders are associated with sleep violence. In arousal disorders—discussed in-depth in this month’s feature—an individual operates in a mental state between wakefulness and sleep, carrying out complex behaviors with no evident conscious awareness. In comparison, people with nocturnal frontal lobe epilepsy experience brief, repetitive and inadvertently violent actions, such as running or kicking, that precede a seizure. A third condition, rapid eye movement (REM) sleep behavior disorder, occurs when movement centers in the brainstem—which create paralysis during deep sleep—deteriorate, often due to a disease of the nervous system such as Parkinson’s. Without this paralysis, the body is free to move around and act out dreams during REM sleep, often causing accidental harm to the sleeper and bedmate. In 2000, the Mayo Sleep Disorder Center’s Eric Olson reviewed the records of 93 patients with REM sleep behavior disorder and found that 64 percent had assaulted their spouses and 32 percent had injured themselves during sleep.



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Changes will allow flexibility in alternative sentencing

Some Cobb officials hope that changes to state law will save taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars by keeping nonviolent criminals out of prison. House Bill 1176, which was passed and signed by Gov. Nathan Deal earlier this year, establishes standards for “accountability” courts, which put nonviolent criminals into rehabilitation programs. Cobb Juvenile Court Judge Juanita Stedman, who formed the county Family Dependency Treatment Court in 2005, said the law will provide partial funding for the county’s drug courts and may allow Cobb to create a mental health court for nonviolent offenders.

Stedman said the program requires offenders to be screened for drugs, see a judge weekly, maintain a job and get an education, if they haven’t already. If they don’t follow the rules, they are sent to jail. “There is no better use of money for folks who are drug addicts and are not violent criminals than accountability courts,” she said. Family Dependency Treatment Court, which is for families of parents who are accused of depriving their children because of substance abuse, currently has a caseload involving 45 mothers, 15 fathers and more than 90 children. That program takes three years to complete.

The Juvenile Drug Treatment Court, which Stedman also oversees, is for juvenile offenders who are either using drugs and alcohol or accused of crimes involving drugs. The one- to two-year program currently has 70 cases.


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How New York Beat Crime

For the past two decades New Yorkers have been the beneficiaries of the largest and longest sustained drop in street crime ever experienced by a big city in the developed world. In less than a generation, rates of several common crimes that inspire public fear — homicide, robbery and burglary — dropped by more than 80 percent. By 2009 the homicide rate was lower than it had been in 1961. The risk of being robbed was less than one sixth of its 1990 level, and the risk of car theft had declined to one sixteenth.

Twenty years ago most criminologists and sociologists would have doubted that a metropolis could reduce this kind of crime by so much. Although the scale of New York Citys success is now well known and documented, most people may not realize that the city’s experience showed many of modern America’s dominant assumptions concerning crime to be flat wrong, including that lowering crime requires first tackling poverty, unemployment and drug use and that it requires throwing many people in jail or moving minorities out of city centers. Instead New York made giant strides toward solving its crime problem without major changes in its racial and ethnic profile; it did so without lowering poverty and unemployment more than other cities; and it did so without either winning its war on drugs or participating in the mass incarceration that has taken place throughout the rest of the nation.

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The Conversation: How the innocent end up in prison

David Quindt can't escape the 15 months he spent in Sacramento County jail for a murder he didn't commit. He moved all the way to Hawaii for a fresh start, yet he doesn't want to completely forget. Each semester, he tells his story to law school students to "open their eyes" about how criminal justice in America can go terribly wrong. Now, Quindt has his own little piece of the new National Registry of Exonerations, the most complete database of its kind ever, about 900 cases since 1989 – and counting.

These exonerations "point to a much larger number of tragedies that we do not know about" because there are many more people who are falsely convicted but aren't able to exonerate themselves, say those who compiled the registry at the University of Michigan and Northwestern University law schools. The registry is a big deal to those who try to help wrongly convicted people, and rightly so. They say it documents that there are common problems that cause the vast majority of false convictions: mistaken identifications by eyewitnesses, unfounded accusations and misconduct by law enforcement.

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Tougher surveillance law could put Peeping Toms on sex offender list

Robert James Bell of Decatur has already been convicted seven times for criminal surveillance. He's currently in jail in Morgan County for three more charges of surveillance, as well as three burglary counts. Warrants for surveillance are also outstanding in Huntsville and Michigan. Yet, because Bell kept slipping through the criminal justice system to commit the same crimes again, Decatur city prosecutor Emily Baggett took action.

After Baggett pushed for tougher penalties, Sen. Arthur Orr sponsored a bill that was signed into law by Gov. Robert Bentley in April. Now a conviction of criminal surveillance for the purpose of sexual gratification could, at the discretion of the prosecutor, result in placement on the sex offender registry.

"This one case brought the issue to the forefront," Baggett said Monday.


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Would repealing death penalty really save money?

On Nov. 6, Californians will vote on a statewide initiative, titled SAFE (Savings Accountability Full Enforcement) California, that would repeal our death penalty. If the initiative passes, the maximum penalty for murder in California will be life without possibility of parole (LWOP). Those supporting the initiative argue that repeal of the death penalty will save the state $1 billion within five years. The claim is based on a 2011 essay written by federal judge Arthur Alarcon and his law clerk. For a state teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, the idea of saving a billion dollars is appealing. But there is no reliable evidence that repealing the death penalty will save money.

One problem is that it is difficult to determine the true cost of prosecuting a capital case, instead of prosecuting an LWOP case. In both, the prosecution must prove (at trial) that the defendant is guilty of first-degree murder and that at least one special circumstance exists, making a defendant punishable by death or LWOP. In an attempt to show that death penalty cases are far more expensive than non–death penalty cases, initiative supporters rely on the huge costs of infamous trials such as those of Scott Peterson and Charles Ng. Those trials were extremely expensive, but that was not because the prosecution sought the death penalty.

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Integrated portal helps crime-fighters link faces and names

Police often capture suspects in a photo or on surveillance video, but an image alone isn't enough to make an arrest; investigators need to put a name to the face.  More than 39,000 county, state and federal justice professionals were already using the Pennsylvania Justice Network (JNET) to conduct secure investigations in a Web-based environment. JNET is an integrated portal that provides authorized users with access to public safety and criminal justice information compiled by federal, state and local sources.

But JNET couldn't help investigators who only had a photo. So the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Justice Network developed the JNET Facial Recognition System (JFRS) to help those investigators identify individuals in photos or videos.  JFRS uses the distinct measurements of each person's facial features to compare an image of an unknown individual with images stored in the Commonwealth Photo Imaging Network (CPIN), which has more than 3.5 million photos of individuals who have been arrested by police. The system creates a facial plate from each photo when it's entered into CPIN, which provides a uniform platform with centralized quality control for capturing, storing and processing images.

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New Report Finds Effectiveness of Drug Courts

New federal research is giving momentum to the call for reduced penalties and more rehabilitation for drug offenders – including juveniles – across the nation. A study funded by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) found that alternatives to handling drug cases, such as specialized courts that usher more people into rehab, can sharply drop recidivism rates, scale back on overall crime and produce deep cost cuts in an overwhelmed criminal justice system. The report comes as the nation is in somewhat of a split over how best to handle many criminal cases, including drug offenses.

As Massachusetts considers a crackdown on repeat violent offenders, the position by many lawmakers has been to ease drug penalties. In Missouri, legislators passed a bill to create more parity in sentencing for powdered and crack cocaine offenses. In the push to cap violent and drug crime in the 1980s and 1990s, many states passed tough laws that skewed penalties for different types of cocaine, with the result being more minorities – and especially blacks − were locked up for longer periods of time.

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Life interrupted: Thomas Craig aims to help people transition after prison

Re-entering society as a productive citizen after serving time in prison for violent crimes isn't easy, but an Oroville man said once he took a small step toward change, positive things started happening to help him. When Thomas Craig, now 46, was released from prison on parole at age 37, after being incarcerated for more than half his life, he found that society did not welcome people who have committed violent crimes.

While trying to steer his life on track, working to be a good father and husband, and trying to give back to the community, Craig also is trying to get an organization off the ground to help released prisoners with the transition. Craig said people coming out of the prison often have work skills, but they can't find jobs. So released prisoners often return to criminal activity, Craig said.

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Now justice can be seen on computers

VICTIMS of crime can now track the progress of police investigations at the touch of a button – from arrest all the way to sentence. A national crime-mapping website has been logging reports of crimes on a street-by-street basis since January. Now it is displaying the outcomes of investigations, too. Police even plan to add the names and photographs of convicted criminals.
The move will, for example, allow a burglary victim in Wigan to find out what punishment the person who broke into their home has received. The outcomes being displayed on the site include whether an investigation is under way, whether an arrest has been made or a charge brought, whether a suspect has been taken to court and what sentence they received.

The move was welcomed by Greater Manchester Police. Assistant Chief Constable Dawn Copley said: “We support any initiative that increases transparency in the criminal justice system. “This new feature of the website will give residents in our communities access to not only information about the number of street-level crimes in their area but, just as importantly, what happens to those criminals who are responsible.

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New York City prosecutors using dogs to help victims testify

For those who are victims of a crime, retelling the event can be traumatizing, especially in front of a room full of strangers. And when the alleged abuser is present, it may be downright impossible. But New York City prosecutors have found a helping paw: Some law enforcement officials are now using dogs to help comfort crime victims before and after they testify in court. Last week, Staten Island District Attorney Daniel Donovan introduced a new team member, Bronksey, a 2-year-old black Labrador and golden retriever mix. Bronksey was donated by Canine Companions for Independence (CCI), a non-profit that trains and matches dogs with people in need, including crime victims. The dogs are trained to put children or adults at ease throughout the arduous criminal justice process.
“Imagine how difficult it is to tell strangers a horrific incident that has occurred to you,” said CCI’s northeast regional director Debra Dougherty. “The dog and the animal-human bond can overcome people’s anxieties and fears and give them the confidence to be able to tell their story, and then in turn … seek justice.” The dogs are used to comfort victims before and after testimony. New York is part of a growing trend; dogs have been OK'd for courtroom use in states like Hawaii, Arizona and Idaho. Two weeks ago, Bronksey helped a 12-year-old Staten Island boy testify about an abusive relative. The dog was not in the courtroom during the hearing, but the boy petted Bronksey before going into court, Dougherty said. When he came out, the child ran over and "gave him a big hug," she said.

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Prison to hire person to hang out with Breivik

The Norwegian prison where Anders Behring Breivik may be locked up for massacring 77 people last year will hire people with whom he can socialise, to keep him away from other inmates, media reported Thursday. If jailed, Breivik could not have normal contacts inside the prison due to the risk of a hostage situation, Ila prison director Knut Bjarkeid told the Verdens Gang (VG) daily.
"Many of the measures surrounding Breivik are being created to avoid a hostage-taking, which would be the only way for him to get through all the different layers of security that have been established between him and freedom," he told the paper. "That makes it impossible to allow normal contact with others," he added.

To avoid keeping the confessed killer in total isolation, the high security prison, northwest of Oslo, could let him play sports with the guards and hire someone to play chess with him, among other things, he added. "We are planning a professional community around him, with employees and hired personnel," he told the paper.

Bjarkeid did not way how much the measures would cost.

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